Braun not the real victim in drug-test saga

Thursday

One thing thatís always struck me about elite athletes is the great sense of entitlement many of them seem to have.

One thing that's always struck me about elite athletes is thegreat sense of entitlement many of them seem to have.

Tiger Woods certainly had it while cavorting around the worldand winning majors by the handful, and Barry Bonds displayed iteven as his head swelled up along with his home run count.

And then there's Ryan Braun, whose performance - and, yes, itsure seemed like a performance - before reporters last week inArizona could be used in future textbooks on the subject. In just ashort period of time he reminded everyone that he's the NationalLeague MVP and the guy with the new $105 million contract, and toquestion what he has to say about anything would be foolish.

He declared himself innocent, despite scientific evidence to thecontrary. Said the truth was on his side, when there was noevidence of that at all.

Then he threw a poor urine collector under the bus because,well, he was just a poor urine collector and he was the NationalLeague MVP and the guy with the megamillion contract.

Well, guess what? The urine collector isn't going to goeasy.

Dino Laurenzi Jr. has never been paid a penny to hit a baseball.Dozens of fans don't line up to get his autograph every time hecomes out of a big league locker room toting yet another cardboardspecimen box with tamper resistant seals. It's something he's donehundreds of times before.

But he's got a reputation to protect, too. A family that, likeBraun's, is proud of what he does. A career as a former teacher andathletic trainer and, currently, the director of rehabilitationservices at a health care facility.

To infer, as Braun did last week, that Laurenzi did somethingfishy with the urine sample wasn't just wrong. It was a despicableattempt to divert attention from the sample itself to the collectorof the sample. Equally troubling - that it was mentioned when therewas no suggestion from anyone, other than Braun, that there wastampering.

And it targeted the wrong guy.

"He's a straight shooter. Never been in trouble," his father,Dino Laurenzi Sr., said last week.

Dino Jr. came to his own defense Tuesday, issuing a statementbecause his only other alternative would be to idly sit by whilehis reputation was shattered by Braun.

"This situation has caused great emotional distress for me andmy family," Laurenzi said. "I have worked hard my entire life, haveperformed my job duties with integrity and professionalism, andhave done so with respect to this matter and all other collectionsin which I have participated."

The rest of the statement detailed how the sample was collected,and what steps were taken to make it secure. Laurenzi said he tooksamples from three players late on a Saturday afternoon at MillerPark after Milwaukee opened the playoffs last season with a 4-1 winover Arizona, and took them home to his basement rather than leavethem unattended at a FedEx drop off location until the followingMonday.

The samples arrived at a Montreal lab with all the seals intact,and no evidence that anything was amiss. There was something amisswith Braun's sample, though - it reportedly showed a ratio oftestosterone to epitestosterone in excess of 20-1, when a ratio inexcess of 4-1 triggers a positive test.

If you believe Braun's protestations of innocence, you have tobelieve that somehow, some way, someone entered Laurenzi's basementwith some synthetic testosterone, broke the seal on both the boxand Braun's sample to contaminate them before finally rearrangingthe tamperproof seals in such a way that they didn't appear to havebeen tampered with.

If so, you'll be happy with the basket of candy you'll begetting in April because it means you believe in the EasterBunny.

"If he really believed this guy contaminated it, then it's anassault with a controlled substance," said Travis Tygart, who headsthe U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. "And with all the retired FBI agentsemployed as baseball investigators they would be all over it."

Apparently a lot of Milwaukee fans do believe it. How else doyou explain the loud cheers greeting Braun at every turn in Phoenixas he casts himself as the true victim in the case. His buddy,Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rogers, is among the cheerleaders,saying on Twitter that baseball "tried to sully the reputation ofan innocent man."

A plot by baseball? A rogue urine collector? Next thing youknow, Braun is going to blame the sausage vendor at Miller Park forselling him a tainted bratwurst.

I can't say Braun is guilty of juicing because I don't have thefacts. I do know his test wasn't overturned because of scientificreasons, but because of chain-of-command issues, and that MLBofficials are furious about it. I also know that testosterone iseasily available to anyone through a couple clicks of the mouse ora doctor's prescription. It's common knowledge that increasedamounts of testosterone can help sluggers be sluggers, especiallytoward the end of a season when their bodies are run down.

Here's one more thing I know: Braun needs to apologize toLaurenzi, and he needs to do it publicly. Yes, it may undermine thebasis of his claim to innocence, but if Braun wants to painthimself as a victim, it's important for him to understand there'sanother victim here, too.

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